networking for a Linux Newbie

[Phil.Arthur at moore.com.au]

G'day Travis

First of all, it's not silly to connect Windows to Linux. Linux is highly
capable and I congratulate you for trying. The method to do it depends on your
goals. But start with the basics. If youu get IP working, then you can focus on
Samba or whatever else you may have in mind.

I'll will assume you know very little about networking. However, if your
attempting this project, you  obviously know how to make sure a network cable is
plugged in.

Localhost is your own machine and it uses a loopback IP address, 127.0.0.1. If
you ping 127.0.0.1 you are only pinging yourself. If you can ping 127.0.0.1 on
both machines, it is a good thing. It means you have TCP/IP protocols installed.

Next try pinging your local IP addresses on both machines.

I assume your doing this at home and you have a cross-over twisted pair cable.
If so, this is good because there is not much risk of breaking any rules on the
net or someone elses network. If this is the case I recommend you use private IP
address such as 192.168.1.1/255.255.255.0 and 192.168.1.2/255.255.255.0. If you
use these addresses and your network cable and adapters are working, then you
should be able to make a TCP/IP connection.

Next try pinging Linux from Windows.

If you Win98 machine tyrs to dial the Internet when you ping, it's because it
has no idea how to find the address to trying to connect to so it is looking to
find it on the net. It won't do this if you have a local subnet properly
configured.

Also try not to use names. Use IP addresses only. Once you get IP functioning
and you can ping both machines, then you can focus on setting up name reolution
and hosts files etc.

Let me know when you get passed this point. I may be able to help you some more.
If this doesn't work you will need to take a step backware and look at your
hardware setup and physical network.

Cheers

Phil Arthur



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